Not a good week here. Brother-in-law had a bad car accident and I came home
from the hospital to find that lightning had zapped my new rig.
Big thanks to George, K5KG for lending his K3 again this year.
Things started with a flurry to the north and a quick 51 QSOs in 15 minutes,
many with weak signals. That was the last I would see to the northeast. No
W1/2/3/8 after the first hour at all. Most of the day Saturday, the band was
open to the heartland, with the occasional tease beyond one-hop range, but just
not a lot of volume there. No W6s or WA/OR/ID/WY. No DX beyond XE and KP4.
We all knew the CME was coming, so Sunday being a bust was not a surprise. Huge
QSB waves Saturday evening. Added just 31 QSOs on Sunday.
FT8 provided 25 digital QSOs here, a few with grids not worked on SSB/CW. Don't
think it was configured optimally at first, so probably wasted even more time
there than necessary. Only two decodes outside FL in the last hour: K1JT
himself (mega-thanks for the software efforts) and W3LPL in the last minute.
At least the thunderstorms stayed clear, but they wouldn't have caused much
disruption to any runs anyway.
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs and to N8BJQ for his efforts in managing the
contest.
73, Dan